XP for the Soul

Playing a video game (VG) requires the player to confront a range of situations: they may choose to rebel against an authoritarian military force, deal with an elderly woman who is blocking their escape after a bank robbery, or decide whether to torture another character to obtain information. In this chapter, we argue that VGs can serve as a “gym” for learning and habituating ethical behaviors by acting as cognitive prostheses and arenas for ethical experimentation. One strength of VGs highlighted is their ability to adapt to unique cognitive styles. Our approach involves categorizing VGs according to the affordances they provide for ethical engagement, including value formation, identity negotiation, and ethical habituation. Against the backdrop of a chaotic and fluctuating world, VGs provide a crucible for ethical rehearsal, world-building, and identity formation, lending to a conceptual understanding of VGs as technologies of the moral self.